Okay, here’s my blog post about the “mangusta car”, written in a casual, personal style, as requested:
So, the other day I was down this internet rabbit hole, you know how it goes, one minute you’re looking up pizza recipes, the next you’re deep into obscure Italian sports cars. That’s how I stumbled upon this “mangusta” thing. I was like, “Mangusta? What the heck is that?”
My Deep Dive into the De Tomaso Mangusta
Turns out, it’s a car! And not just any car, a pretty wild-looking one from the late 60s, early 70s. It’s called the De Tomaso Mangusta. Apparently, “Mangusta” is Italian for “mongoose,” which, as I later learned, is an animal known for, get this, killing cobras. More on that in a bit.
First, I just looked at pictures. Man, this thing is low and sleek. It’s got these crazy gullwing doors, but not like the DeLorean. These are over the engine and rear wheels. I watched a video, and check that the whole back half of the car opens up!
Then,I wanted to know the process behind that,so I started digging into how this car came to be. It’s a whole soap opera, really. It all started with this guy, Alejandro de Tomaso, an Argentinian racing driver who moved to Italy and started making cars.
- The Ford Connection: I found out that De Tomaso had a deal with Ford. The Mangusta actually uses a Ford V8 engine,the small block engine. I guess that made it easier to sell in the US, since parts would be readily available.
- The Shelby Connection(maybe):I read the De Tomaso and carroll shelby had a falling out,De Tomaso wanted to use the name “Mangusta” (mongoose) because it was a dig at Shelby, whose cars were called Cobras.
I spent a good few hours just reading forum posts and old articles. It sounds like the Mangusta was a bit of a handful to drive. Some people said it was amazing, others said it was scary. The weight distribution is apparently way off (more weight in the back), which can make it… unpredictable. Kind of a beautiful, but potentially deadly beast.
Finding Actual Owners (Sort Of)
I really wanted to talk to someone who owned one. That proved tricky. These are rare cars. I did find some online forums where owners (or people claiming to be owners) were chatting. Mostly about maintenance nightmares, which, let’s be honest, I kind of expected. Finding parts for a 50-year-old Italian sports car? Sounds like a full-time job.
I even tried to find one for sale. There were a couple, but they were way, way out of my price range. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. Guess I won’t be adding a Mangusta to my garage anytime soon.
So, that’s my Mangusta journey. From “what’s that?” to “wow, that’s a crazy piece of automotive history!” It was a fun little detour from my usual internet browsing. Now, back to those pizza recipes…
